The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for
2002 with one half jointly to Raymond Davis Jr and
Masatoshi Koshiba "for pioneering contributions to
astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic
neutrinos" and the other half to Riccardo Giacconi "for
pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have
led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray
sources".

Two New Windows on
the Universe

The
earth lies in the path of a continuous flux of
cosmic radiation of different kinds. Some of
this is very difficult to detect. This year's
Nobel Laureates in Physics succeeded in doing
this, thereby increasing our understanding of a
number of heavenly bodies, from the sun and
other stars to supernovae and galaxies. This
new knowledge has changed our picture of the
universe.